There is a chance that most of our digital media (music, video, photos) are stored in our home desktops, therein lies the usefulness of being able to access it on the go with Orb. Orb, currently in version 2.0 requires you to complete a server side installation that will then run as an Orb windows service on your system tray. The only main setting allows you to set up the folder location for the files you wish Orb to index. The other settings are minimal and are mostly around connectivity and proxies to get around your home firewall if any.

Once this is done the fun starts. You can now access the Orb MyCasting site by logging in for all the goodies that’s on your beloved media store back home. The page loads up with a default homepage with an “Open Application” link on top that gives you access to the selected media category. To be honest, i use Orb mainly for accessing my music so i will choose exactly that -

Application selection

Once you get into the Audio page, it will list the indexed music and thumbnails of the folders you decide to allow Orb to access on the server side. A media player friendly interface shows all the music that you have as well as allowing you to search for your music.

Orb Screen

Double clicking on file will stream the file and play it, my home pc doing all the hard work of transcoding it. You can also perform shift-select / ctrl-select to select files and drag and drop to build a playlist. There is a download button that can zip up the files for download it you decide to play it locally on your on-the-move machine. Since it is open source, the advantages are it does nearly every popular media standards, including using flash to stream so all modern browsers will definitely work, and that’s what i use -

Orb Player Settings

Orb is versatile enough for other forms of media and devices but if there is anything going for it – it’s to be a portable jukebox at work with any decent net connection. Highly recommended when good things do come free.

How does Orb Work?

Orb WIKI

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